


Dying Free

by patroklassy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, M/M, Star Wars crossover, The Force Awakens Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 03:57:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7492890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patroklassy/pseuds/patroklassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi needs a means of escaping his life as a Stormtrooper, and the capture of Resistance pilot Erwin Smith provides the perfect opportunity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dying Free

It wasn’t that Levi didn’t like killing. It was just that he didn’t like killing _innocents_ , and looking about at the village whose numbers were already decimated by continued Titan attacks, he couldn’t help but think that he had hardly come across a group of people _more_ innocent.

It wasn’t difficult to grasp that he was alone in this feeling. Titans had already been spotted approaching from the west, and he had been ordered, alongside the rest of his squadron of Stormtroopers, to ransack the village and get what they needed before the Titans arrived to finish their work. Even now, as he stood in the darkness staring upon the rising flames, listening to choked screams and smelling the acrid scent of burnt flesh, the other Stormtroopers were continuing to fire. Light flashed everywhere. Levi turned his head, eyes attracted by some small movement.

There, among a pile of wreckage, was a small girl, skin blackened with ash and soot. Blood dribbled from a cut on her cheek. “I’m not going to hurt you,” Levi said gently. But his helmet distorted the tone, stripping it of life and turning his words into a lie to coax her from her hiding place. To prove his honesty, Levi hoisted a slab of metal and laid it over the girl’s pile of wreckage to hide her face more completely, and then took a few careful steps away, making sure to turn his gun away out of her line of view.

“LVI-1749, why aren’t you firing upon the village?”

“I was following an escapee,” Levi replied coolly. His captain’s labelling of him was a harsh reminder that his name wasn’t even truly Levi. He was nothing but a serial number. “The escapee has been shot down. They were intending to flee and warn the next village.”

“The Titans will be arriving in less than four minutes. Re-join your squadron and finish the job.”

His captain’s silver armour flashed unnervingly beneath the fire and laser shots, making it seem as if it simply flowed in and out of the darkness. Levi found himself struggling to look at her. Turning away, he marched back over to the centre of the village where most of the action was taking place. He arrived in time to watch a firing squad shoot down some sixty people.

 _Innocents_ , Levi reminded himself.

This village had done nothing wrong other than harbour a Resistance fighter, a man who had already been captured and taken on board some time before. There was no reason to be killing these people now. Well, no reason other than cruelty and malice. Levi raised his gun, and even let off some shots, just for appearances, but he aimed them carefully, making sure none of them found their mark.

In the end, there was nothing he could do. He avoided killing any himself, but all of them died all the same. The few that remained were left to the Titans, who rumbled in from the west just as Levi’s captain had predicted. The Stormtroopers were already back on their ship.

From a small window, Levi could just see the face of a Titan that turned to watch the ship take off, a stupid grin on its face. A lazy, slow hand reached to swat at them, but the ship was too fast, already rising out of reach. The Titan lost focus and turned back to the village, where it swooped downwards and snatched up a tiny figure in its hand. Levi wasn’t sure—the ship was on the brink of speeding away—but the tiny figure looked small enough to be the girl he had seen. He thought, _Maybe it is for the best._ Any family she had were dead. If she lived, she would be all alone.

 

Three days passed and Levi found himself calmly leading the captured Resistance fighter—a pilot named Erwin Smith, he had discovered—towards Bay 2. So far, he was impressed with this man of the Resistance. When Levi had approached him with his plan, he had been agreeable and unperturbed. And now, as they strode illegally past countless other Stormtroopers and people of the First Order, Erwin Smith maintained a remarkable amount of composure. If Levi had to choose one word to describe him at this moment, it would have been _indifferent._ He was neither nervous about their plan nor overly eager to escape. This man, Levi realised, was a soldier to the heart. 

The TIE-fighter awaited them like an open hand, its door already ajar. Levi simply let Erwin in ahead of himself and then took his seat, gun controls laid out before him. He could hear Erwin seating himself, the click of his harness, the slap of switches being flicked into place. The TIE-fighter roared to life before Levi had even finished settling his hands on the controllers. “You’re sure you can fly this thing?” he called. “They’re different to other ships.”

Erwin’s voice reached him from behind. “I can fly anything. The layout might be different but the principle’s the same.”

“Just don’t shit yourself on the take-off. These things move fast,” Levi warned. 

He received only a grunt in reply. A moment later the TIE-fighter was lifting. It hung in the air, suspended out of time, for only another moment before shooting outwards towards the hanger’s exit.

It was halfway there before it swung back again, and Levi felt himself lift half an inch off his seat beneath his too-big harness before slapping back down again. He hadn’t taken the time to tighten it yet. “I thought you said you could fly anything,” he growled.

“It’s the tether,” Erwin replied, somewhat defensively. More switches were being flicked.

Now Levi saw it. A great black rope connected the TIE-fighter to the holding bay they’d just left. Erwin was clearly hoping enough force would break it; the TIE-fighter was bouncing and tugging.

But Levi was good with guns, as much as he despised using them in the way he had been trained to. For a good cause, however, he was likely one of the best shooters the First Order had. It was just unfortunate that the First Order _had_ no good causes. His hands moved with familiarity over the controls and he swivelled the TIE-fighter’s blaster until it was aimed perfectly at the tether. The timing was important; he waited until Erwin had brought the ship to the edge of the tether’s stretch, and then he fired, letting the momentum carry the TIE-fighter further forward as the tether snapped until they shot, quite literally, out of the hanger.

Empty space consumed them. Levi looked out his window and saw blackness dotted with specks of silver. The massive ship they had left loomed above them, and Erwin’s voice reached him as if it were an echo. “We’ve got to take out the guns.”

Already it felt as if they were a veteran team. Erwin didn’t need to say anything more. Levi knew already that he would move the TIE-fighter into the position it needed to be in, and Levi was certain that Erwin knew already that he would shoot out the First Order’s guns without fault. Light raced past them, flashes of gunfire. None hit. Levi waited, waited, waited— _shot_. And again. And again. Then Erwin turned the TIE-fighter and took them barrelling away from the great mass of the First Order’s ship.

Moments of silence passed as they sped onwards. When Erwin judged that they were far enough away, he slowed the small ship and asked, “Where to?”

_Where to?_

Levi felt a sudden rush. _Where to?_ Anywhere. He could go anywhere. His helmet had been long discarded and he lifted a hand to wipe the sweaty hair from his forehead. He relished the feeling. How often had he been able to feel air on his face, to breathe and talk without apparatus distorting it all?

“Well?” Erwin pressed.

Levi thought of the girl in the village. Maybe she hadn’t died; maybe it hadn’t been her in the Titan’s fist. It was a small thing but he had nothing else. “I need to go back to Rose.”

Though he couldn’t see him, Levi got the distinct feeling that Erwin was shaking his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. I need to return to the Resistance base.”

“Then why did you bother to ask where I needed to go?”

“If it was on the way, I would have dropped you off,” Erwin replied amiably. He seemed to have paused to think, because a moment later he added, “But I can’t take you to the Resistance base. Not until I know more. Rebel or not, you were a Stormtrooper.”

Levi ignored the unpleasant flare he felt in his stomach. _A Stormtrooper._ He hated what he was. But to Erwin he said, “Then take me to Rose. To the village Trost.”

By way of a reply, Erwin asked, “What’s your name?”

“You mean my serial number?”

 “I didn’t ask for your serial number.”  

Levi drew in a long breath. The air trembled a little. Then he said, “Levi. My name is Levi.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Levi. Erwin Smith.”

Levi appreciated that Erwin didn’t question where a Stormtrooper had gotten the name _Levi_ , but he wasn’t about to show it. “I know that already,” he said instead, a tad shorter than intended.

Erwin didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll take you to Rose. I owe you, after all, for getting me out of there.”

Levi thought, _By those definitions, I owe you too; you got me out as much as I did you._ But he kept quiet, and slid sideways a little in his seat as Erwin turned the ship.

Sometime later they were nearing the planet Rose, but something slowed their progression: a sharp blast, and the rocking of the ship. Levi smelled fire and smoke. There was a pain in his head where it had hit against the controls. “Shit,” he said.

He could hear Erwin frantically flipping switches behind him. Then Erwin’s voice reached him again. “We’ve been hit. Must have been the First Order.” A sudden jolt rocked the ship again, and it was followed by Erwin saying, “Controls are busted. Ready yourself, Levi. We’re going down.”

“Typical,” was all Levi said in reply. He let go of the blaster controls. They were no use to him now. Instead, one hand gripped the edge of the seat while the other hovered over the EJECT button. It was too early yet to use it. The planet Rose rushed towards them, round and bright, but they needed to be far, far lower before they could safely use their parachutes.

Erwin’s voice was strangely unchanged by the dire situation. It was level and calm as it said, “I’m sorry about this, Levi.”

Levi’s voice, for his own part, was only a touch more strained than usual. He sincerely hoped he wouldn’t die today, but everybody had to go some time. “It’s hardly your fault.”

The radar showed a small ship racing towards them, clearly dispatched by the First Order to either kill both Levi and Erwin or bring them back. Maybe the TIE-fighter’s guns wouldn’t be so useless after all. But they had passed through Rose’s atmosphere and begun to plummet now, and the First Order ship that had shot them was left far behind.

“Do you know how to use a parachute?” Erwin asked.

“I think it’s pretty straightforward.” Levi could feel the ship lightening. Parts were starting to break away.

“On my command, then.”

Levi allowed himself a moment to loathe the use of the word _command._ He’d been given enough commands. He’d been under the command of others for too long. But there was something about Erwin—something honourable and inherently good _._ Levi suspected he was the kind of person that would make harsh decisions but couldn’t really be faulted for them, because he was always motivated by that same inherent goodness _._ It was for this reason that he didn’t mind the word _command_ quite so much when it came from Erwin’s mouth. He braced himself and brought his hand to hover over the EJECT button again.

The moment came in a rush; Erwin shouted something that indistinct that was probably, “ _Now, Levi!_ ”

Levi hit the button and felt the air leave him as he rushed backwards and upwards; his chest felt choked as the parachute opened and caught, a similar sensation to the TIE-fighter reaching the end of its tether in the hanger. Open sky was above him and gold, gold, gold lay below. A desert. Levi shouldn’t have been surprised; seventy percent of Rose was desert. Still, it wasn’t the greatest place to land.

The impact with the ground blinded him and then knocked him out completely.

“Erwin?” His throat fell raw and the desert seemed to swallow his voice.  “Erwin!”

This time, the desert spat it back at him as an echo. Smoke rose some distance away and Levi, still dizzy after waking up, set off towards it.

He found the TIE-fighter, dented and burned and all but destroyed as it was, and he also found Erwin, unconscious and bleeding from wounds that were, due to the prolific amount of blood, invisible to Levi. He dragged Erwin free of the wreckage and carried him a good twenty metres away, an impressive feat for someone as slight as Levi. Then he made a series of treks back to the TIE-fighter to recover what he could. Unfortunately there wasn’t much, since they hadn’t packed for a long journey, but he managed to cut the harnesses free to use to hold compresses down over Erwin’s wounds, and he found some water in a compartment which somehow hadn’t boiled away during their descent and impact. It was an hour before Erwin woke up, most of the blood cleaned away and his wounds—burns on his left hand, gashes on his head and chest—already bandaged, and by that point the situation had very much worsened.

The sound was all too familiar to Levi. It took him back to the countless villages he’d been sent into, the flames and smoke and crushed bones that seemed to flow out in the wake of the First Order, and the rumbling it always ended with: Titans, many of them, stumbling towards villages to pick off those that the First Order had left. The same rumbled reached him now.

The sand and heat meant that everything was a haze, and it took far longer than it ordinarily would have for Levi to spot them: two at first, followed by at least three more, running and stumbling and stamping their way towards the wreckage of the TIE-fighter. No doubt the smoke had attracted them; where there was smoke, there was almost always people. And there was nowhere for Levi and Erwin to hide.

“Do you know why they call them Planet Eaters?” Erwin’s voice sounded as if it was being filtered through the sand of the desert. Levi passed the water to him without taking his eyes from the approaching Titans.

He’d heard the name Planet Eaters before. The Titans were like parasites, and nobody really knew how they had managed to spread so completely across the galaxy. Few planets remained that weren’t plagued by them. Rose was one of the worst. Rumours spread that soon enough she would fall. The planet Maria, in this same galaxy, was already emptied of life. The Titans could be found anywhere, charging in with a dust cloud rising behind them, and they wiped out entire villages in one go. So yes, Levi knew why they called them Planet Eaters. “Because they devour everyone on the planet until there’s no one left.”

“They’re the bane of the Resistance’s existence. Every time we make some progress against the First Order we have to throw it all away to save another village, another town, another planet from these disgusting things. And the First Order’s been experimenting on them. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to control them properly.”

Erwin didn’t need to tell him. Levi had seen first-hand some of the Titans the First Order had dragged into its clutches, strapped down and put under the knife—or under the influence of a Force-sensitive—to find out how they functioned, and how they could be better utilised. Were it only a matter of conditioning them much like Levi himself had once been conditioned, Titans would already be marching under the command of the First Order. But their minds didn’t seem to be susceptible to such a method. So experiments continued.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about all that. The Titans were already reaching the TIE-fighter. Another twenty metres—just ten steps to some of the taller ones—and they’d be upon Erwin and Levi.

Erwin struggled to his feet. Levi didn’t stop him. Wounded or not, he could still fight, and Levi needed all the help he could get. The only problem was their lack of weapons. A small blade lay with them, used by Levi to cut up the harnesses, and he took it up now, holding it backwards so he could swipe the edge in a smooth stroke. Erwin reached into his jacket and pulled out a small blaster. “I stole it back after they stole it from me,” he said, when Levi looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

And here was the first one. Levi leapt, and managed to use a combination of one hand gripping, the other using the blade as a kind of pick-axe, to scramble his way up the Titan until he reached its neck. Below he could see Erwin rolling across the sand, coming up on one knee to shoot the Titan right between the eyes. Blinded, it swayed sideways, and Levi grabbed its hair to steady himself while he swiped the blade left and right across the Titan’s neck, trying to bite in deep enough. But the blade was too short. “Erwin!” Levi cried. “Swap!”

Erwin understood immediately. He dived again, avoiding the feet of the second Titan that had just reached them, and then tossed the blaster as high as he could. Levi caught it, throwing the knife in return. It landed point-first in the sand and Erwin snatched it up.

Levi gripped the Titan’s hair again, and positioned himself so he could shoot at an angle. A stream of light shot from the blast and took out a chunk of the Titan’s neck, mangled skin falling away. The smell was disgusting. Levi gagged and shot again, taking out another chunk. One more would do it. But the Titan was stumbling, trying to reach backwards and swat him away. Levi had just enough time to let off one more shot before he had to leap away.

He hit the ground and rolled, coming up with sand in his hair and in his mouth. But a looming shadow let him know it had worked: the Titan was tumbling downwards.

 Levi dodge sideways just as the impact came, sending sand spilling about. A great orange cloud rose, choking Levi a little. When it cleared, he saw that Erwin was in a similar position as he had been, standing on the neck of a Titan. The other three had reached them now, and Levi knew they didn’t stand a chance. With only a knife and a blaster, it would take too long to take down them all.

But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep fighting. He didn’t need to shout to Erwin this time; he simply threw the blaster and watched as the knife spiralled through the air to land by his feet. He took a moment, barely half a second, to observe Erwin. The blaster was in his hand and his blonde hair was in his face, striped with blood. His wounds had started bleeding again, but Levi admired the way he ignored them completely.

And his aim was superb, almost as good as Levi’s.

One after another, quick as lightning, three flashes and three chunks of Titan skin and muscle flying outwards. The Titan fell and Erwin went with it, until it was close enough to the ground that he could leap clear without doing too much more damage to himself. He slogged towards Levi—slogged because the sand, in places, was calf-deep—and came to a stop at his side, breathing hard. Silently, he passed the blaster back to Levi. “You’re . . . better with it . . .” he said between breaths. He bent, somewhat painfully, to pick up the blade.

Some of Erwin’s blood was on the blaster and it felt slick in Levi’s hand. Side-by-side, they surveyed the scene. Three more Titans, one staring with a lopsided grin at the sky, one having returned to the TIE-fighter, still poking at it but on the verge of losing interest and re-joining the others, and the third moving towards Erwin and Levi with a lumbering gait. The one staring at the sky was slowly turning towards them. In a moment, they’d both be upon them.

“I can’t believe I left the First Order to die like this,” Levi muttered.

Erwin, though blood-soaked and crusted with sand, still lacked any strain or panic in his voice. “At least you’ll die free.”

It shouldn’t really have been a comfort, because what anybody else would have said was something heroic like, _You’re not going to die today, Levi! We’re going to fight!_ But, somehow, Erwin’s words were comforting. Because Erwin was right. Dying out here, in an open desert with the open sky above him, was still better than dying in a Stormtrooper’s suit in some poor village, even if he would die facing Titans.

Erwin bent and put his hands together and Levi knew what he intended. Placing one foot on Erwin’s cupped hands, he braced himself. They didn’t need a count-down. Erwin thrust his hands upwards at the same moment that Levi pushed upwards with his free leg, and the combined might sent him high, high enough to land awkwardly on the smaller Titan’s shoulder and drag his way up to its neck from there. He fired the blaster.

Nothing happened.

“Erwin!”

Erwin had the knife in hand, swiping it at the grasping hand of one of the other Titans. Fat fingers rained downwards in a spray of blood that Erwin did his best to avoid. “What?”

“When did you last reload this thing?”

The sudden pause in Erwin’s movements was enough of an answer to Levi. All the power cells had been used up. It wasn’t Erwin’s fault—trapped in a First Order ship didn’t provide the greatest opportunity to reload a blaster. But it certainly lowered their chances of surviving. 

Levi turned the gun around and attempted hacking at the Titan’s neck with the side of it instead, but it wouldn’t even break the skin. Below, Erwin was doing what Levi had done earlier, using the blade as a pick-axe to climb his way up the Titan. Now they both stood on the necks of two of them with nothing but a short blade to do any damage. Erwin looked to Levi. Levi looked back. He nodded. It was a sign he knew Erwin would understand: _Hack away. Don’t worry about me. Save yourself first._

In a way, Levi had already resigned himself to death. It was easier to give away hope rather than fighting and fighting until it was snatched from him. It felt good to at last have some control over himself, in any case. He balanced himself on the Titan’s neck and watched Erwin as he slashed downwards at his own Titan’s neck again and again.

The blade was dulled by use. It wasn’t cutting as well. Erwin was using twice the effort to achieve half the result. Soon enough, his blood-loss would be too much and he would pass out with the exertion.

Levi could see what Erwin intended in the way his movements slowed, not in exhaustion but in the process of thinking. A moment later the knife was once again spiralling through the air, and Levi caught it. Erwin, too, had chosen to give away his hope, with the thought that it could at least be passed on to someone else.

Levi started hacking but his better condition didn’t change the fact that the blade was dull now, and each stroke only ripped at the flesh without cutting it out.

The third Titan had given up on the TIE-fighter and it loomed near Levi now, intending to pluck him from the other Titan’s back. Levi ducked the first swipe but his energy was low. He knew, as a blood-slicked hand slipped on the surface of the Titan’s back and he nearly fell, that he wouldn’t last much longer. Again he looked to Erwin. Some kind of a mutual agreement once again passed between their gazes. This one said, _We managed to surprise each other. That’s a miracle on its own, to know we die in good company._

A rumble started up. Levi’s heart sank lower. The last thing they needed was even more Titans to fight over their bodies.

But then the Titan beneath him began to shudder, and Levi had to swing his weight forward and grab at a lock of thick, greasy hair to stop himself from being thrown off. Nearby, Erwin was doing the same. The shuddering increased and then the ground seemed to grow closer. The third Titan fell to the ground, as if it simply hadn’t been able to balance, and something seemed to swallow it. The sand swallowed it, gulping it down beneath the earth.

Levi leaned out as far as he could and looked down. His own Titan’s legs were almost knee-deep in the sand, and sinking further. “Sinking sand!” he heard Erwin shout. And then he knew what to do. He mustered all his strength. He waited, waited, waited, and hoped to god that Erwin was doing the same.

And then he leapt.

There was no way of knowing where the sinking sand would end. He pushed himself outwards as far as he could and he hit the ground and hoped it wouldn’t disappear beneath him. It didn’t. A thud let him know Erwin had landed nearby. Sand was in his eyes and in every crevice of his clothing, but at least it wasn’t above him, at least it wasn’t sucking him down.

He sat and turned and watched as the three Titans were pulled downwards, arms reaching lazily even in death. Those stupid, lopsided grins were still on their faces. Levi shuddered. There was something incredibly unnerving about such a grin when death approached its wearer.

When it was done, he turned to Erwin. He looked terrible. The sand had stuck to every bit of blood until he was plastered in a sticky, rough paste, and his skin was pale except for under his eyes, where it was a heavy bruised black. But he was alive. And Levi was alive. And that was a good thing.

“Still think Rose was a good idea?” Erwin asked. His voice was rasping and dry. There was sand on his lips, too.

“Shut up,” Levi said. But then he reached across and took Erwin’s hand. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because they had both just beaten death and it was the only way he had to celebrate. Maybe because this Resistance pilot was the real deal. Maybe just because Erwin had nice hands, even if they were covered in blood and grime. Levi allowed himself a moment to consider how much nicer this moment would be if they were both clean _._ The desert stretched out about them, an ocean of orange glass, empty and lifeless and so very quiet now that the Titans and the TIE-fighter were gone, stolen away to somewhere dark and deep. “Now what?” Levi asked.

“Now what indeed.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Erwin sighed. Slowly, with a great deal of effort, he pushed himself to his feet, and had to release Levi’s hand in the process. His eyes narrowed as he turned in a slow circle and looked all about him. Nothing. Just sand. “Now we walk, I suppose. Pick a direction.”

Levi stood too. He barely reached above Erwin’s shoulder, and had to lean around him to see what lay beyond. “That way,” he said at last, pointing to what he was eighty percent certain was north. _That way_ looked the same as every other way, but Levi had a feeling. Erwin didn’t question it, which Levi liked.

He thought of what Erwin had said earlier. _At least you’ll die free._ As they set off, he considered this. There was still a very high chance they would both die. After all, they had no idea how far they were from civilisation or, more importantly, a water source. But he wasn’t worried. If he died, he would die with Erwin at his side, which, he had decided, wasn’t an entirely terrible way to go.

And at least he would die free.


End file.
